If you want a shrinkwrapped CD we will gladly ship it to you at no cost. To receive a complimentary copy of the Hoary Hedgehog CD -- or a handful to give to your friends, your school or LUG, place your request at:

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for the desktop or the server that includes all of Debian as well as most of the packages of apt-get.org, with a fast and easy install, regular releases (every six months), a tight selection of excellent packages installed by default and a commitment to security updates with 18 months of security and technical support for every release.

Although Ubuntu includes more packages than any other Linux distribution, only a single CD is required for installation. Everything else can be selected and installed on demand from the network. Only the core "main" set of packages receives a guaranteed level of security review and updates.

Ubuntu gives you a distribution that is:

* absolutely committed to free software, every application on the CD is free software

* 100% free of charge, and the Ubuntu team is committed to keeping it that way

* complete with security updates for the distribution at no charge for at least 18 months after every release

* easily upgradable to the latest desktop and kernel and infrastructure every six months

* able to run on machines with x86, AMD64 and PowerPC processors, with additional ports to IA64, SPARC and HPPA under way in the community

Hoary Hedgehog (5.04) Features

* Simple and fast Installation

Ubuntu comes on one single CD, with thousands of extra packages available online. The install is optimised for speed and simplicity. Ubuntu has excellent support for laptops (both x86 based and Powerbook / iBook PPC based), and can also be setup in a minimalist server configuration. It's a text based installer for maximum compatibility and speed, we think it's the fastest Linux install around.

* Live CD's for Intel x86, AMD64 and PPC

Ubuntu is the first distribution to offer Live CDs for all three architectures simultaneously. The new Live CD is easy to modify and update for custom Live CDs with your personal selection of packages.

* GNOME 2.10.1

Ubuntu always includes the very latest stable GNOME and KDE. In Hoary we have GNOME 2.10.1, which features better performance and significant theme polish. You might also be interested in Kubuntu (**), the new community driven KDE-based Ubuntu, that is being released today.

X autodetection and laptop screen detection have had considerable updates based on community participation. The binary drivers from ATI and Nvidia are available and can be installed easily, though the system will use open source drivers by default.

Hoary can be installed in a minimalist mode designed for servers, or in full desktop mode. It works well on laptops and desktops. Ubuntu aims for security by design - there are no network services open to the net after a default installation, and we have greatly reduced the number of tools that run with system privileges to enhance security further.

The wiki is a shared web space used by the Ubuntu community to develop new ideas for Ubuntu. Anybody is welcome to edit and add to the wiki.

Ubuntu Mailing Lists:

Ubuntu mailing lists are the heart of our community. In addition to the announcement list, and lists for users and developers of Ubuntu, there are now Ubuntu mailing lists for the Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian and Israeli communities as well as lists devoted to Ubuntu security, news, translation, and the inevitable lighthearted chitchat. To get more information or to subscribe, visit:

The forums provide a web interface to the Ubuntu mailing lists that many people find easier in addition to the providing a large number of unique web-only forums. The Ubuntu Forums won an Ars Technica award for the best free software community in 2004.

The Ubuntu IRC channel is your best place to start for help and discussion about Ubuntu and the Warty Warthog release. We aim to keep the signal-to-noise ratio as high as possible on that channel, and on all community forums.

Thanks to the team of professional and volunteer maintainers who have worked so hard to bring The Hoary Hedgehog Release to fruition, and to members of the Ubuntu community, who have provided bug reports, documentation and translations.

"Ubuntu" is an ancient African word for "humanity towards others", and we think it's a perfect name for an open source community project. In that spirit we invite you to join, to contribute and to share Ubuntu with your own community. Our next release, the Breezy Badger, is due in six months time. You can help to shape it by joining the team and contributing your own expertise. See you at #ubuntu onirc.freenode.net!

(*) Array (n) A collection of Hedgehogs. Continuing in the fine tradition of collective nouns established with the 4.10 Warty Warthog release, we have called the community testing team for Hoary Hedgehog "The Array".

(**) Kubuntu is being released simultaneously with Ubuntu for the Hoary release. It includes the complete KDE 3.4 desktop and login manager, as well as the whole of Ubuntu and all the k-bling you would expect from the KDE Community. See the Kubuntu home page at http://www.kubuntu.org/ for details.